As we expected, Apple launches IPhone 4

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The unveiling of Apple's iPhone 4 had some of the pizazz taken away from it by an unprecedented level of leakage, most famously by tech blog Gizmodo. But regardless, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was able to show-off a number of impressive new features.

As has been Apple's wont with its mobile devices, a lot of the further investment has been in the display, which Apple is calling the ‘retina display' in reference to the resolution being so great that the human retina is unable to distinguish between pixels. In numbers this means a 3.5 inch display with a resolution of 960x640 - four times as many pixels as the iPhone 3GS.

There's now a front-facing camera, which allows video calling facilitated by an application called FaceTime. But, for this year at least, it's only enabled via Wi-Fi, and there was no talk of 4G networks.

"iPhone 4 is the biggest leap since the original iPhone," said Jobs. "FaceTime video calling sets a new standard for mobile communication, and our new Retina display is the highest resolution display ever in a phone, with text looking like it does on a fine printed page. We have been dreaming about both of these breakthroughs for decades."

The iPhone 4 is the thinnest one yet; with a thickness of 9.3 millimetres. Both the front and back are made of toughened glass, while the stainless steel frame also doubles at the antenna. As expected, it runs on the same A4 chip as the iPad, while the iPhone OS has been renamed iOS, to reflect its use in more than phones, and iOS 4 will come as standard on iPhone 4.

Other hardware improvements include a gyroscope to aid gaming, while further new software includes an iMovie app for the iPhone, multitasking, and iAds will debut on iOS4 on 1 July.

The phone itself will be available from 24 June in the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan. In the US it will cost $199 for the 16 GB one and $299 for the 32 GB one as part of a phone contract. A new 8 GB iPhone 3GS will be made available at the same time for $99+contact. The iPhone 4 can be pre-ordered from Apple from 15 June, and existing iPhone users will get a free upgrade to iOS 4 on 21 June